African bishop defies Vatican on condoms

Published: 09 April 2007

Freedom Park is just one of a half-dozen squatter camps that are home
to 100,000 people near South Africa's border with Botswana. They sit in
the shadow of platinum mines, which rely on migrant labour. The men
come for contracts of a year or two, and leave their families at home.
In the wake of the miners come the women, fleeing poverty. It's the
ideal environment for the spread of HIV. There are so many women here
with stories of pain. The local bishop Kevin Dowling heard them, and he
did what he knew was the right thing: distributed condoms - Stephanie Nolen